Motivation

Today I was gonna quit the 10-day cleanse. Not because it isn’t working, not because I’m not seeing results, not because I don’t want to do it. I ate 966 calories yesterday, my average net calories (after exercise) for the past 1o days is 945, even without exercise my average calories consumed is 1090.

The average female needs at least 1200 calories per day (gross) in order to avoid putting her body into starvation mode, even when trying to lose weight. Do you know how hard it is to consume 1200 calories when all you are eating is fruits & vegetables? Well if you really are only eating fruits & vegetables without fat and oil and sugar it is very hard to do. And because I have been averaging so low the past 10 days I’m starting to get tired. Super run-down flat out exhausted tired. I feel similar to when I had mono in college. I get home from work and all I want to do is go to sleep. Last night, I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 8pm I kept waking up because of the thunderstorm outside and I wasn’t really asleep because I was watching tv but I was fighting sleep, hard.

But instead I have changed my mind. I am, in fact, not going to quit the cleanse mid-way. Instead I am going to force myself to eat enough calories. Only a few more days and the super hard part is over, I can totally do this I just have to work at it.

I have not been hungry once since starting this cleanse. I am eating more probably now than I ever have in my life, it’s just the things I am eating are healthier. It’s hard to hit 1200 calories worth of baby carrots and celery sticks!

Why the new-found commitment? Yesterday I lost 1 pound. No really, this morning I weighed myself and I weigh one full pound less today than I did at the exact same time yesterday. But that still isn’t all of my motivation. After all, the cleanse is not meant to lose weight, that’s just a happy side-effect, it is meant to get my body to a healthier balance. Get myself to a healthier place. I still stepped off the scale this morning determined to quit the cleanse an just do a regular weight loss diet until I hit my goal.

So what made me recommit to getting to a healthier place? Today I walked into work behind a woman who can only be described as morbidly obese. I am not saying that in a mean or hateful way, it is in this case simply the fact. This woman was about 5-foot tall (maybe) and could barely walk. When she walked her body bobbled from side to side, it made me sad more than anything. Then I saw what she was carrying, in her hand was a coke (if it’s a soda, pop, pepsi, 7-up it’s a coke!) from Hardees and a bag with a large to-go container. I like Hardees, especially their fried chicken, but I haven’t been there for breakfast in years so I wasn’t sure what she could possibly have in that container. When I got to work I pulled up their breakfast menu.

Let me start by standing up for Hardees, their breakfast menu has a lot of options that while not-necessarily “healthy” they aren’t very bad. Each of the items on their online menu gives full nutrition information so I was able to compare calorie and fat content for every item and must admit next time I want fast-food breakfast if I am able to resist the Chic-Fil-A Chicken Mini’s I will be stopping at Hardees. However they also have a lot of items that aren’t so great. I’ve narrowed down the list of possible things in the woman’s to-go container based on what would be served in that way. Basically it had to be a breakfast platter. The Country Fried Steak & Gravy platter has 810 calories and 49 grams of fat, the regular Breakfast Platter has 860 calories and 55 grams of fat, the Big Country Breakfast Platter weighs in at 870 calories and 44 grams of fat, the pancake platter isn’t so bad it only has 310 calories but still contains 50 grams of fat.

To put that into perspective, over the past 10 days my daily average fat consumption has been 38 grams. That is 6 grams of fat lower than is in any one of those breakfast platters. That single meal contains almost as many calories as I consume in one day, plus at least 6 grams of fat more than I eat. (and that includes the butter I put on my sweet potato at Texas roadhouse Sunday!)

Life is full of slippery slopes and I’m going to do my best to steer clear of this one. I’m going to eat as much as I possibly can over the next few days. For those of you who are on My Fitness Pal please feel free to add me as a friend. (SRPM) When the notification comes up that I’m under my calorie goal, yell at me. At least until next Monday. Next Monday I will reset my daily calories to a slightly higher number for now they’re set at 1200 not because that’s my limit but because that’s my goal. I have to eat enough to have energy to do the things I need to do but I also need to get all of that crap out of my system from all of the Taco Bell and McDonalds and Hardees I have eaten over the years.

44 Grams of fat…in one meal…that is why I’m doing this. That is why I’m going to succeed.

(and just so we are clear 44 grams of fat is roughly 3 ½ TBSP of Crisco or 3 ¾ TBSP of Butter, )